Dream On
by eternalangelkiss
Summary: Songfic.  Song used:  Dream On by Aerosmith.  James and Lily are dead and a traitor on the loose, but did you ever wonder what was going on with the rest of those that had known and loved them?


Dream On

**A/N:** This is a songfic centered on the Marauders just after Lily and James were found murdered. The Song used is Dream On by Aerosmith. No copyright infringement is intended.

_Every time I look in the mirror_

_All these lines on my face getting clearer_

_The past is gone…_

Sirius Black stood outside the ruined house at Godric's Hollow, looking up at what had once been. His chest heaved as a tumult of emotions crashed through him. A terrible sorrow clinched shut his throat and hot tears spilled down his face. The full moon cascaded it's chilling light down, turning everything bone white. A cool sigh of a breeze grazed Sirius face, but he couldn't see nor feel anything but the rubble in front of him and the conflictions of emotions inside him.

_They are gone._

Nothing was left, not of the house or of his past. Sirius could scarcely believe that James, his friend and his brother, was gone. Just the other day, he had talked with him and they had laughed together. Now, his world had fallen apart. He suddenly felt old, as if a thousand years had fallen onto his shoulders.

A part of him wanted to scream out his grief, let the entire world know what it was he had lost tonight. He had lost two friends…

_Harry…_

Sirius still had Harry. He, a mere child, had survived and Sirius should be happy, but, although he was happy that Harry had survived, an anger had taken a hold of him. Harry shouldn't have to be alone in the world as he was now. Sirius' anger writhed inside him alongside his guilt and his sorrow. If only he had been the Secret Keeper, if only he had not trusted that rat, Peter.

Sirius lifted his head and screamed out to the sky, his anger rising out of his throat like some wild beast.

He would find Peter and make him pay. He would hunt him to the ends of this earth until James and Lily were avenged. Nothing would stop him from his mission, not the friendship that had been, nor the world that had changed over night.

For the past was gone.

_It goes by, like dusk to dawn_

_Isn't that the way _

_Everybody's got their dues in life to pay_

Peter's body shook as he sat at the bar of a small Muggle pub. All around him a sea of noise bombarded him and Peter felt lost in those jumbled voices and drunken stupors. Peter grabbed his glass and downed his drink, his hand shaking as he did so.

_How could he have done it?_

The question had plagued him all night. Every few seconds he pictured James holding Harry in his arms, his smile bright and wide. He saw Lily's radiance as she nestled her head against James' shoulder. That image would forever be etched in his head and it was only yesterday that he remembered them like that.

Peter hated himself for what he had done, but knew that he couldn't have done any different. The Dark Lord was too powerful. He had chosen his side, made his choice. Peter nervously looked about him, his head drenched in sweat and his eyes sagging under the lack of sleep he had gotten lately. A terrible sorrow and guilt racked his body and he could hardly wrap his mind over what he had done. It was like he was looking at two different parts of him, the noble one who had once been a Marauder and a friend and the other who had turned over James, Lily and their new born son to Voldemort. What sort of person had he become?

The dawn was coming and some would know what it was he had done. He couldn't stay here, couldn't stay anywhere for he knew that those that mattered the most, Sirius and Remus, would come after him. He was sure of it. And a part of him knew that he deserved to be hunted down, deserved the revenge that Sirius would exact on him, but a larger part of him shouted that he run and hide, the two things he knew how to do best.

Peter quickly got up from the bar, his heart pattering wildly in his chest, as if he were already being hunted, but then he knew that that was what a traitor felt like. As he turned to leave, he knew that he would always have that memory of his friends branded on his mind and he would always carry this guilt deep within him. It was his due in life to pay and he had no other choice, but to bear it. The act was done and he couldn't take it back even if he wanted to.

He knew now that life was fleeting. It could end in just the time that dusk passed to dawn. Peter looked about him one more time and then rushed out the front door.

_Yeah, I know nobody knows_

_where it comes and where it goes_

Petunia Dursley stared out the wide window of her living room, the light from the moon showering down on her and her newborn baby that she gently rocked in her arms. The silence of the night and of her sleeping baby was a salving balm to her frantic mind. She had never thought about how hard it would be to take care of an infant. The past few nights she had not gotten a lot of sleep and out of that, strange thoughts had been coming to her lately, thoughts of her sister, Lily.

Petunia pursed her lips in disapproval of herself. She should know better than to ever entertain those thoughts in her head. They had been unwelcome when she had first thought of them and they were unwelcome now, but Petunia wasn't fully convinced of this. Maybe it was the moon and the warm little body she held close to her chest, but for some reason she kept thinking of Lily and her own warm little body that she was probably rocking right at this very moment.

Petunia sighed and couldn't escape the mental image of her sister staring out her own window with her own newborn and holding him close just as Petunia was. It was only in the dead of night when no one would know that she ever thought of Lily, that Petunia did so.

She had never fully understood her feelings for her sister. It was a mixture of resentment, jealousy with a faint ghost of sisterly love. Petunia remembered the days when it had been just her and Lily. They had done everything together, played together, laughed together. She had thought that it would always be that way. She had expected to grow up next to her sister, share their stories of love, heartbreak and joy, but then Lily had met that horrible boy Snape and everything had changed.

Petunia forced those thoughts out of her head. She wasn't going to think about this. Lily had made her choice and so did she. She was going to be normal and she wasn't ever going to have anything to do with the world her sister now belonged to.

As she went about clearing her mind of the past, Petunia felt a sudden fear pounce on her. She couldn't quite grasp how she knew, but she knew that something was wrong. Petunia hated these strange occurrences, mostly because they were pretty accurate. She just knew that something bad had happened, could feel it in the pit of her stomach.

And the memories of her sister came rushing back to her. She couldn't stop them even if she tried. Petunia remembered how she used to take Lily to the park and swing her on the swings. She remembered how they used to play together with their dolls in the back garden and the times that they had gotten into the pantry to get some cookies. Petunia gasped as a raw emotion began to creep up her throat. Every memory she had tried to ignore over the years about her sister began to come back to her.

Just as she had been hit with the sudden fear, Petunia had a sudden urge to see Lily, though the thought was absurd. Lily was now no better than a stranger to her; a very dangerous and embarrassing stranger.

Petunia began to pace with the sleeping Dudley in her arms. She couldn't assuage the fear or the sudden urge to see Lily that had hit her and it made her hold her son all the more tighter. She wondered if Lily was doing the same, if she thought of Petunia and her life.

Petunia stopped pacing as she stared up at the moon. She had no idea where her feelings came from and where they ever went. She sometimes wished some thoughts and feelings would let her be. It seemed as if the moon knew all of her secrets, all of her disappoints and every single thought she had ever had over her sister. The fear became more pronounced.

"This is rubbish!" Petunia whispered aloud.

She grabbed her new floral print curtain and jerked it across the window, shutting out the moon and those unwelcome thoughts and memories. Petunia walked out of the room to lay Dudley to sleep, but even as she left, she still couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible had just happened.

_I know it's everybody's sin _

_You got to lose to know how to win_

Severus's fingers were raw and bruised, but he didn't care. He didn't care about anything at the moment.

_She is gone…_

The thought played over and over again in his head as he bit back the rampant need to scream out his anguish. Instead, he grabbed a nearby book and threw it against the nearby wall. He then swept the papers of his desk, the papers he had spent just this morning slowly perusing over.

All around him, his room was in shambles. He had thrown every book he could get a hold of, shattered every glass trinket he owned, ripped papers, broken chairs and even chucked his Potions case to the far, dusty corner of the room. He didn't care about any of it anymore.

All he could think about was Lily. Her green eyes flashed across his sight over and over again.

_He was supposed to spare her._

Severus threw himself against the nearby wall and pounded his fists against it, hitting it as hard as he could. The wood creaked under the beating, its old, peeling wall paper indented by his attack.

_He was supposed to spare her!_

Severus' nails dug into the wall as his anguish overwhelmed him, suffocating any other feeling he had. He didn't feel any pain from his bloody fists or the deep gashes on his arms and fingers. He didn't feel the ache in his shoulders from when he had grabbed his desk and toppled it, nor his salty tears that streamed down his face.

All he could see was Lily and his memories of her. She was turning around to smile at him on the train or she was leaning her head on his shoulder when they were younger. He remembered how the sun used to glint off her hair like droplets of gold or how her laughter was the only thing that had ever truly made him smile. And now she was gone and all of his memories seemed like traitors to him.

"HE WAS SUPPOSED TO SPARE HER!" Severus screamed out, the words burning his lungs as he yelled them.

As the words fell from his lips, Severus felt the last of his energy leave him and a heavy weariness deadened his limbs. He slowly slid down the wall, biting back his strangled groans. He sat like that, senseless and without any knowledge of what was going on around him, for a while. He didn't want to think or to even breath anymore.

Why continue living if the one thing you loved the most was gone? Severus eyed his wand, wondering what he could do to end his suffering. He had never had anything good in his life except her.

"He was supposed to spare her…" Severus whispered, but then he remembered something that sparked a small flame in his now dead heart. There was still a part of her that existed.

Severus thought about the Boy-Who-Lived. He thought of Harry. Severus had no idea how it was that the infant had survived the attack, nor did he care. All that he cared about was that a part of Lily still existed out there and he suddenly knew what he had to do.

He had had enough of the Dark Lord. Voldemort had gone back on his word and he had killed the one whom Severus had loved. There was nothing that would ever make Severus forget that. Severus didn't know if the Dark Lord was gone or not. He didn't know what the future held for him. All he knew at that moment was that there was only person left who had a part of Lily in him and Severus was going to do what he could to protect the boy, even though the very thought of protecting the child of James Potter was repulsive to him. For Lily, he would do it.

Severus snatched up his wand from the floor, which had miraculously survived the whirlwind of disaster he had created. As if by second nature, he conjured up his Patronus, which was usually a bat, but this time, when it came out of his wand, he was looking at a doe. Severus smiled through his tears as the doe came and laid its nose on his head.

Sometimes one had to lose everything to know how to win.

_Half my life_

_is in books' written pages_

Albus Dumbledore's shoulder's sagged as he sat in his chair and the fire flickered across his aged face. The paper that bore the news of James and Lily's death was crumpled in his hand, his thin fingers turning bone white as he squeezed it. He had never felt as life weary and old as he did tonight. And at the same time, he was relieved that it may be finally over.

Albus looked up at the bookcases around him. Half his life he had spent coming to understand the most complex of magic and the most difficult of situations, but never in his long life had he ever faced what had happened tonight. It was hard and brutal to deal with, even for a man as himself.

Albus still remembered James and Lily at their wedding. He remembered how it seemed as if she had been filled with the brightest light and James had seemed to be floating on air. He remembered the joy and happiness everyone had shared that day. He remembered the laughter, the unbridled hope and the normality of it all. In a world that where there was very little to find hope in, that one moment had been precious to everyone because it reminded them that love and hope still existed in the world.

Albus closed his eyes, shutting in his tears the edged them. He could still hear the sweet violin serenade of James and Lily's first dance, the way they swept across the floor like angels and how they had had eyes only for each other. He wished he had loved as they had.

Albus then thought of Sirius Black and an odd mixture of anger and regret filled him. He should have insisted they make him the Secret Keeper. He should have listened to his instinct that told him that there was a traitor close to the Potters. Albus had known the Potters were in more danger than they realized, but never in his life would he have guessed that the danger was from Sirius Black, the one that had been closest to James.

Albus should have known better. He had had a life time of people he had thought he had known, people he had once loved, turning on him. There were warning signs in those situations as well, but he had not heeded them. As he had not heeded them now. He felt partially to blame for not protecting the Potters as he should have.

Albus looked at the note in his hand one more time, before he crumpled it and let it fall slowly to the ground, pirouetting through the air like a small ballerina. He gave a great and heavy sigh as he walked over to his desk where on it sat a new letter he had penned up and was going to deliver to one Mrs. Petunia Dursley.

As Albus picked up the second letter, he thought about the Boy-Who-Lived. He found it ironic and fitting that a child should defeat the darkest evil when not even he could. He knew that Harry was going to have a hard life ahead of him. Everyone would know his name and yet not know him. He would have to face a legacy that had come from his greatest tragedy and he would have to face it, ultimately, alone.

Albus stood and strode to the door of his office with the new letter in his hand. He looked at his unique watch of moons and stars, and judged that he would get to Privet Drive with time to spare.

_Lived and learned from fools and_

_from sages…_

Remus Lupin barely felt the chill of the fall night as the wind blustered about him. He hadn't been able to feel anything ever since he had heard the news of James and Lily's death. Everything in his world had muted itself down to a shade of gray. He couldn't feel the ache on his tailbone from the hard cement step he sat on outside his flat. He didn't hear the night noises of the city as they slowly faded away or the hunger pains he had had in his stomach before he had gotten his owl.

All Remus focused on was one picture in his hand. Lupin leaned down, wrapping his arm tightly around his knee and resting his chin on it. His shaggy, long hair fell into his eyes and normally it would have irritated him, but he didn't even realize it had happened. The picture in his hand was of his friends on their last day at Hogwarts.

Remus could still remember that night vividly.

Remus had been all alone, sitting in a corner of the common room on their last night. He had forced a brave smile on his face all day, but by evening, he was done. He couldn't be happy because his time at the only place that had ever accepted him was coming to an end. Soon he would have to face the outside world, a world that hated his kind. It was hard to have joy when such a thought clouded one's mind.

Remus had never felt as alone as he had that night in that corner. He had looked at his friends and knew they had grown apart. James was always at Lily's side and he couldn't be parted from her. Remus knew that it was going to last forever for them and he knew he should be happy, but a part of him was sad. James would leave him as would the rest of them. Soon they too would drift away from him, moving on into their own lives and their own passions. The future was bright for them, but not for Remus.

How was he going to make it by in the outside world especially with a war on? In Hogwarts, he had friends and people who believed in him. In Hogwarts, he felt safe and important, but in the outside world, he was a nobody.

Remus idly played with his nearly empty fire-whiskey bottle, listening to the hallow clank of the glass as it scraped the table. At times, he would look up at his friends as they enjoyed their last night. Most of the revelry had died down by now. James and Lily talked near the fireplace, James occasionally stirring the fire with a poker. Sirius and Peter were in the corner playing a game of wizard's chess. Every once in awhile, Remus would hear Sirius curse as he lost another player. Wizard chess was the one thing that Peter was always better at than Sirius or any of them for that matter. Usually Remus would be by their side, enjoying the rare moment when Sirius was put in his place, but tonight his heart couldn't be happy. Instead he continued to play with his bottle alone in the corner.

Remus wasn't aware that Lily was near him until she sat down in the chair opposite him.

"Hello, Remus," she said softly, her kind eyes wide with concern.

"Hello," he answered quietly, trying his best to avoid her eyes.

"It's kind of scary, isn't it? I mean, we're about to join the real world. We won't be safe as we are here. I'm sure you are more aware of this than anyone else in the room," Lily said as she quickly glanced about her.

Lily had an uncanny way of knowing when something was wrong with someone and what it was that was bothering them. Remus was just not in the mood to talk about his inner turmoil. He should be happy, should be ecstatic about not having to go to school anymore, but he wasn't. He opened his mouth to speak, but found no words would come out. He suddenly didn't want this night to end because in the morning everything would be different and it terrified him. Maybe he was a fool or maybe a sage for fearing the future. Only time would tell.

Remus nodded, suddenly remembering that Lily had asked him a question. His eyes scrutinized the variegated lines of the wood table and his fingers faintly drummed an unfathomable tune, some habit he had formed and did not even know about. Somehow looking at Lily would remind him all over again of what the future held for them.

Lily reached out and gently touched his hand, her fingers soft and warm.

"It's okay. We're all a little scared. James, Sirius and Peter would never admit it, but they are as well," Lily said and then she jerked her head towards James.

James looked up at Remus from the fireplace and smiled, but behind the smile, Remus could see a tenseness. He was afraid as was Remus, but James had found someone to be afraid for, someone he would die for. Remus just hoped that he could one day be so lucky.

"Come on," Lily said as she grabbed Remus's hand and dragged him out of the chair.

"Where are we going?" Remus asked.

Lily didn't answer. Instead, she nodded at James who grabbed a camera that sat near them, one that Peter had brought down stairs to show them. He then turned to a nearby fourth year and said something to the blushing girl. She nodded and took the camera.

Lily pulled Remus to the center of the room as she said loudly, "Peter, Sirius, stop your game for a moment. I want to get a picture of us all on our last night."

At that very moment, Sirius cursed loudly and Peter chuckled as Sirius's king dropped his sword in defeat.

"There is no game to stop because Peter just beat me," Sirius stated darkly. Remus felt a smile edging his lips. It was good for Sirius to lose every once in awhile and it was good for Peter to win.

Sirius and Peter got up from the table and walked over, pushing and shoving as they came. As they stood for the picture, Remus found himself in the middle of two pairs, the calm little couple of James and Lily, who were smiling at the camera and the rough housing pair of Peter and Sirius, who jostled the entire group.

"Owww, Peter that was my foot," Sirius shouted.

"Then get your arm off my neck you overgrown oaf," Peter shouted back, clearly enjoying the attention he so rarely got from Sirius.

"Wormtail, don't use words you don't understand," Sirius quickly retorted as the rough housing worsened.

"I understand them and…" Peter quickly answered.

"Peter, Sirius, can't you two be serious for one moment?" Lily admonished through her tight lipped smile.

"No," Peter and Sirius answered at the same and continued to wrestle, only stopping as the camera flashed. Remus hadn't realized it, but he was finally smiling and would be for the rest of the night.

Now looking back on that memory, he wondered how it had all gone wrong. He felt the ghost of a smile on his lips as the memory had played out in his mind, but it turned into a bitter grimace. Remus sighed, already weary of the world he lived in.

_You know it's true _

_All the things come back to you…_

Peter ran as fast as his short legs could carry him through the alley. He didn't care about the way that people stared at him as he ran pell-mell. He didn't care about anything except getting as far away from the pub as he could. For he was a hunted man and he knew that Sirius would check every place they had once been together, the four of them.

_"Peter…"_

Peter Pettigrew stumbled as he heard that whisper, a voice that couldn't be there. He jerked his head around, staring back down the alley he had been running down. Nothing was behind him except the howl of the wind as it ran its cold fingers over every item in the alley.

"Whose there?" he whispered. His beady eyes scoured the alley behind him as his heart raced in his chest. He saw no one near him.

_"PETER!"_ The voice shot out, this time just behind him. He knew that he couldn't mistake who it was he heard, even though it was impossible.

Peter slowly turned, his hot sweat turning to icicles that frosted his head. His chest shook in terror and a sudden pain of grief. Peter turned and saw James standing behind him, but he wasn't the James as he had known him as a man. He was the eleven-year-old boy that Peter had met so long ago on the train to Hogwarts. James wore the same slacks and shirt that he had worn the day they had first met, the day he had saved Peter from bullies.

_"Peter, why?" _ The young boy asked. James' blue eyes stared at Peter, betrayal swimming in them. Peter felt his heart shudder in his chest as a pain squeezed it. He doubled over as he tried to force his tears from falling.

"I'm…I'm…"

The young James lurched on his feet and his eyes fluttered, dimming as he stood there. Blood began to trickle down the corners of his mouth. Peter bit his hand to hold in his terror.

James pointed one shaking finger at Peter and screamed out, _"TRAITOR!"_

James collapsed to the trash littered street, landing in a dirty pool of water, his blood streaming down the pavement towards Peter. Lifeless, accusatory eyes stared at Peter. Peter let out a frightened shriek and fled the alley, running back the way he had come.

He knew at that moment that his life would never be the same. The old Peter had died the moment James had. He was just coming to the realization late. All that was left was some fiend that he had never thought resided inside him. What he had known was now gone for he could never go back to his former life.

He would never be able to escape what he had done.

_Sing with me, if it's just for today_

_Maybe tomorrow, the good lord will take you away…_

Sirius stormed out the door of the Muggle pub into the nearby alley. He knew he was close and it rankled him that he had missed Peter by mere moments. Sirius walked over to a nearby wall and punched it, screaming out his frustration as he did so. All he could think about was revenge. It's bitter taste emboldened him. It fueled the inner rage and recklessness inside him.

Sirius leaned his head against the alley wall, his anger pumping through him. His heart raced, but he needed to think and in this heightened emotional state, that was not possible. Slowly, he started to calm his rage down. How was he supposed to find Peter?

Sirius knew that all human means of detection had been used. He knew that Peter had been here, but he had no idea where Peter had gone to. How else could he track him?

As his gnarled thoughts became clearer, he realized that he had one advantage that he hadn't used yet. A human couldn't follow what was seemingly a cold trail, but a dog could. He knew that in his Animagus form he would be able to pick up Peter's scent.

Sirius pushed off the wall, suddenly very sharp and clearheaded. He paced a bit, thinking of what he would do once he caught up to Peter. Death was a fitting justice in Sirius' opinion, but he had to consider that Peter would not be alone, especially if he was with his new friends.

"Sod it," Sirius snapped to himself. He was tired of waiting and thinking. The longer he stood here, the farther the rat got away from him. He scanned the alley around him before he pocketed his wand and turned into his familiar black dog shape.

He immediately knew he had done the right thing because he caught the familiar scent of Peter and the direction he had taken. Sirius sniffed around where he had got the scent. Peter had been in this alley, that much Sirius knew and he didn't smell any unfamiliar fresh human scents, which meant that Peter was alone.

Revenge rushed through him like an electric current and he felt very much alive. He very well knew that he may only have today, because tomorrow he could be gone. Life was fleeting, a brutal lesson he had learned a few hours before. He was not going to waste this opportunity.

Sirius raced after Peter, the scent strong in his nose. He didn't know what future lay in front of him nor did he care. All he wanted was Peter. All he wanted was justice to be paid.

_Dream on…_

Peter stumbled again as he ran down the street. Everywhere he looked, he saw him. He saw James. Peter clawed his way past the late night throngs of people who passed him. Shock and fear filled their face as they watched the crazed man run down the street. Peter's face was haggard and his eyes wild with terror. Never had he thought it would be like this. Never had he thought he would be haunted by what he had done.

Peter ran towards a nearby Muggle overpass and ducked under it, the roar of the Muggle vehicles drowning out his own thoughts. He leaned his head against the cement wall and sobbed, not caring who heard him. He couldn't handle this. He couldn't bear knowing the truth of what he was, a traitor and a betrayer. Somehow he had turned into the villain and he wasn't sure now if any of it was worth it.

Peter pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them. He had no idea where to go or what to do. Any time he had had a problem, he had had his friends with him, but they were gone and he was to blame.

A distant howl floated to him on the currents of the night wind and Peter shrieked in terror. He knew who it was. Peter calmed his thudding heart and cleared his mind. He had to think, had to plan if he was going to stay alive. Peter listened to the dog song as it played to him from across the city and all the while, he planned.

_Dream on…_

Remus slowly rotated the picture he had in his hand, the picture of the five of them on their last night at Hogwarts. Remus looked at James and Lily, who looked serene and calm. James gave him a wink before he turned to Lily and kissed the top of her head. They looked so happy and at peace. He was glad that they had found some happiness, before they were killed.

Remus then looked at Peter and saw how happy he was because he had bested Sirius at one thing. He had never been as good as Sirius or James, but he had been one of them. Remus remembered all the times they had played chess together. Peter could be brilliant, a sort of brilliance that was often ignored when he was next to James and Sirius. Remus wondered where Peter was now and if he knew the horrible news.

Remus finally turned his attention to Sirius, to his crooked smile and bright eyes. Sirius had one arm hooked around Peter's neck, wrestling with the smaller boy. Remus still found it unbelievable that Sirius had betrayed James. Out of all of them, Sirius had only ever really been close to James. They had been like brothers. A large part of Remus railed against the very idea of Sirius being the traitor. He would have never done such a thing, but Remus also knew that Sirius had been the Secret Keeper. He had to be the traitor, for there was no other way James and Lily would have been found. How could it have come to this?

Remus found that he couldn't bear to look at the picture anymore. Too much had happened; the past was gone, only seen in a memory. He was the only one left. Sirius was a traitor and on the run. Peter had disappeared. And James and Lily were dead.

Remus felt his warm tears spill down from his eyes. He stared hard at the picture in his hand. It seemed as if it were taken yesterday, in a time when their dreams still seemed plausible. They had believed that they could change the world, but the world had overtaken them instead.

Remus pulled out a lighter that Sirius had once given him on his birthday. It had the head of a silver wolf on its warm, caramel colored surface . He flicked it open and watched as a small flame shot up. It's brilliant colors entranced him.

Remus looked once more at the picture, his hand shaking. Their dreams had died. There was nothing left. Remus put the lighter to the picture and watched it slowly blacken and curl. He let it drop to the ground and watched it until it was gone.

The past was gone and he was the last marauder.

_Dream on…_

Albus held the tiny life close to his chest, with Minerva hovering over his shoulder. He had never felt so young and so old all at the same time. Albus was afraid of holding Harry to tightly, like he could crush the tiny infant and at the same time thought it absurd. Harry had survived the impossible.

Albus stood in front of Number four, Privet Drive, cradling Harry as if he were his own son, a son he had never had. He found it ironic that the magical world's hopes and dreams now rested on this little boy. He knew that Harry could never lead a normal life. Normality of any kind had been robbed of him tonight and Albus knew that this little boy would one day have to face what had happened tonight. He hoped he would be as brave as his father and as good as his mother. He hoped, as everyone else did, that those strengths resided inside him.

Albus strode over to the door of Number four, Privet Drive, McGonagall close behind him and stared at it for a moment. Would the Dursley's ever know just how special this child was? Would they cherish him as he deserved to be loved? Albus hoped so. He would give the world if this burden hadn't fallen on a child, but it had. Albus knew he would be there for Harry as much as he could.

Gently, Albus bent down and placed Harry in his little basket on the Dursley's doorstep. He tucked his letter in the side of it. As he looked down on the sleeping child, he only wished that Harry could stay in this peaceful world of his dreams. He was safe there and didn't have to face what brutal truths the world offered him.

For now, all he could wish for was that Harry would dream on and live for just a moment where rainbows are everlasting and James and Lily are at his side.

"Good luck, Harry Potter."


End file.
